and heavy hair, but her hair was black and she had the tawny skin of a half-white; but our forms and features were so much alike that anyone must have known that we were sisters. I was still a child when I first heard about her, through the Morton girls, of course. First it was sneers and innuendo, which I did not understand; and then gradually I came to comprehend and to feel the odious humiliation, and to realize what was meant by the meaning smiles and the veiled comment whenever the little girl happened to appear anywhere at the same time that I did. And then, when we both went into Punahou School and into the same class, the situation became unbearable; for even among children there are always those who delight in malicious persecution of anyone who has a vulnerable spot; and of course the Morton girls, although they were my cousins, were in the van of the torturers. Naturally I realized that it was harder upon Evalani than it was upon me; for she was the one who bore the stigma; and yet her pride was equal to it and I never saw her cringe, even under the bitter prods of my cousins.
"I bore it with as much cool indifference as possible, but when I was about fourteen the situation became absolutely intolerable and I determined to face it and see if I could not figure out some way to mitigate the torture. I had never become very well acquainted with Evalani, because whenever we
